I’m not an expert in the field, but I have noticed some factors that play a big part when starting to build your site. Some of this is something I’ve probably read or heard about, but most are own experience and I’ve not used similar articles as reference, so these are points I came up with on the fly when I started writing this post.
1. Time your posts right!
Depending on your audience, you should time new entries at times when people are online and can pick up your entry on feeds or twitter. If you know your target group is English-speaking and mostly from USA, then don’t add a post after midnight, because when traffic is peaking, your post is long gone.
2. Follow news & trends
When you post a news story, be one of the first with a proper story. This can make you the sources to others blog posts and even the one post that everyone retweet. This goes before the timing of the post, because news need to be fresh – and news are always googled by people who are interested in views and more information. Old news is never very good news. Be aware of what is trending – and include it in your writing and site.
3. Google ad words campaign
A great way to notify Google on the content of your site is to run an ad words campaign if you have $100-$1000 USD to spare. This is mostly in the beginning, to get targeted readers and audience, and to kick of Google attention to your site. I ran a 3 days campaign (with a free coupon I got from Google) on my small site and unique visitors a day rose with about 100%. It was not a very big site, so the traffic was not very big to begin with, but the effect was noticeable and stayed that way.
4. Begin ready
Have content ready to be published for a good time when you start. Don’t start twittering when site is up, start long time before to build up your followers, and then tweet about your site when it’s up. This way you are sure to get more traffic than if not. Have everything – every static page with carefully chosen words to get proper SEO. This includes unique header tags, titles on pages, about us page etc. Have some content pre posted on the site when start. If a blog, post a handful of good articles from the start (and keep them coming). This is, when Google and other search engines pick your site up they pick up all keywords and material thoroughly in first try. If you edit later you probably have to wait a while for Google to change the information on the static content, because Google are most interested in new content.
5. Advertise your site freely
Get out there. Be ready with Twitter, Digg, and other social media. Use them. Use forums, have link to your site in your footer. Post comments on relevant blogs and sites so that link to your site comes up. Tip relevant blog masters or news sites of your site, if they like, they may recommend. Link to articles and news that have a pingback function to get free advertisement. Advertise your site as a great site, not a “new site”.
6. Know how social media works and use them properly!
Tag your site correctly on delicious and more people will do the same by your suggested tags. Tag your site right in StumbleUpon and you get stumbled upon by the right audience.
Posted by John Larsen 
IndividualWeb 